By Bida Elly David
South Sudan National Bureau of Standards (SSNBS) has teamed up with various stakeholders to intensify fighting against substandard goods.
Last year, the SSNBS conducted a comprehensive market inspection exercise across Juba, targeting traders involved in the sale of outdated and potentially harmful commodities. The objective was to safeguard public health by cracking down on the distribution of expired products.
The institution successfully seized over 40,000 tons of expired goods, promptly issuing warnings to the traders involved.
Yesterday, the SSNBS recently convened a workshop where they would collaborate with the East African community to enhance the quality of goods available in the market.
Gloria Nyoka, the Executive Director of SSNBS, stated that it is the role of the institution to protect citizens from consuming toxic goods, saying it is crucial to improving quality standards.
“We need to come up with fruitful inputs so that we can represent our position to the East African Community that concerns the safety of the people of South Sudan and the safety and quality of products produced in the country,” Gloria said.
The SSNBS boss underlined the country’s weakest position of being dependent on imports with limited local productions, saying there is a need for more efforts to be exerted to protect the citizens against harmful products being imported.
“Up to now, we are still a country that depends on imports, but we are looking forward to being a country that will also export,” she added.
Goria further noted that exporting means they also need to put in a lot of effort so that they ensure that all the products the country exports have quality and safety according to the regulations and standards.
Kual Ayom, the SSNBS acting director general of planning, stated that the bureau ought to invest much effort to collaboratively work with the EAC standard sector.
“South Sudan is a member of the East African community, and for that reason we are effectively participating in all the EAC activities, especially those to do with standards and assurance,” he said.
Kual noted that, based on that, these activities will be guided by a series of policies and documents that will be harmonized across the region.
“These policies will guide the movement of people in activities across the region,” he said.
On a positive note, the director highlighted that the South Sudan Bureau of Standards is also a member of East Africa’s Standards Committee, which is responsible for standards, performance assessment, and accreditation, saying it is good for the young nation.
“The EAC is now developing some documents, and those are regional documents for all the systems in regard to standards and regulations in the region,” Kual emphasized.
He urged cooperation among stakeholders as well as citizens to ensure the maintenance of quality standards in South Sudan at both the national and regional levels.
The workshop was attended by a number of officials from institutions and stakeholders in the related area.